New York City Real Estate - How Potential Buyers at Three Open Houses Feel About the Market -- New York Magazine

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The Open-House Log: Special Credit-Crisis Edition

(Photo: Zach DeSart)

520 La Guardia Place, Greenwich Village
What: Three-bedroom, two-bath co-op.
Price: $1.275 million
Broker: Mallory Weil, Halstead Property.
Attendance: Mobbed.

Who: Matt Baldwin, owner of a tutoring company, and Shelly Shapiro, banker (pictured).
How serious are you about buying?
MB: I don’t know. We’re currently renting.
SS: We’re expecting a down market.
MB: We have six months on our lease.
Are you concerned? I mean, you’re in banking.
SS: Well, a little. But his business isn’t affected at all.
Do you like this place?
MB: No. I mean, if it were a different economic climate ...
SS: We like more of a modern aesthetic.

Who: David Saenz, lawyer, and Stacy Saenz, lawyer.
How long have you been looking?
DS: We’re looking to upgrade from a one- to a three-bedroom. It’s been three months poking around. This place is very well priced—a lot of others, you can see them start to come down.
SK: But they haven’t quite.
Do you think the changing market will help buyers like you?
DS: We’re hoping so. Maybe there’ll be less bidding wars.
SK: We’ll have to see where the market is in terms of credit lines.
And you have to sell your old place.
DS: Actually, we’re going to try to rent it out. It’ll only be a problem if banks don’t give out mortgages.

Who: Claude Hersh, attorney
Are you scared off by the credit and stock markets?
Actually, my partner and I have been thinking this was going to happen, so we’ve been holding off. We made low offers on a few places.
So you’re serious now?
I think brokers have been telling sellers a real story about how they can get a higher price when they really can’t. We think it’s going to get worse. I think we’ll hold off for a few months.
Where are you looking?
Anywhere downtown. I live on the Upper West Side. It’s boring.